Land of Five Elements
This project explores Khakassia — a republic in southern Siberia where ancient worldviews continue to exist within contemporary everyday life. The степи, covered with burial mounds, menhirs, and petroglyphs, shape not only the landscape but also the way reality is perceived.
In Khakassia, traces of ancient cultures are not separated from life: burial mounds stand along roads and among villages, livestock graze on them, and people pass by. In this constant proximity to the past, a particular perception of time emerges — as a continuous process in which practices developed over millennia do not disappear, but continue to exist in transformed forms.
This is a story about how a mythological worldview becomes part of everyday experience. How belief in spirits, in the “masters of place, ” and in the power of certain locations and rituals becomes embedded in daily decisions, language, and behavior. The project is built on observing this coexistence — between ancient practices and the present, between material traces of the past and living forms of belief.
The title “Land of Five Elements” refers to an understanding of the world as a system of interconnected forces — earth, water, fire, air, and spirit — which, in Khakas tradition, manifest through the landscape, natural phenomena, and the presence of invisible entities. This system is not separate from everyday life, but permeates it, shaping how people interact with their environment through daily practice and collective memory.
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